The present invention relates to the fields of toys, and specifically to a rotating toy equipped with a means to measure rotation data. The rate of rotation and/or other data related to rotation of the rotating toy measured are used to implement many entertaining games. Playing with a toy of the present inventions supplies hours of fun for friends and family alike.
Rotating toys are popular in many cultures. Well known rotating toys including such favorites as tops (tsa-lin, koma), yo-yos, boomerangs, flying disks (such as Frisbees®), flying rings, ko-en-gen (diabolo), balls and roulette wheels. Spinning toys are used, for example, for playing catch, acrobatics, studying of holy scriptures (e.g. the Dreidel), gambling (roulette, teetotum tops), or even weapons (the yo-yo, boomerang, Oddjob's hat from the film Goldfinger (MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc.)). Although there are many variations of rotating toys, it is likely that the general popularity of these toys arises from the inherently fascinating motion together with the magical stability which the gyroscopic motion gives a rotating toy.
Persons of skill in the art have devoted much effort in the improvement of spinning toys, see for example U.S. D31,654, U.S. RE8,708 or U.S. Pat. No. 63,891. More recently, advances in materials technology and electronics have lead to the integration of special features into rotating toys, especially illuminated rotating toys (U.S. Pat. No. 1,503,006) or toys that play music when rotating.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,966 teaches a very exciting improvement to rotating toys, specifically for tops and yo-yos, based on utilizing the persistence of vision effect. According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,966 a display mechanism comprising an array of lights rotating with a toy and a processor for differentially actuating the individual lights according to a stored pattern. When the toy rotates at a rate that matches the clocking speed of the stored pattern, a two-dimensional image (such as a message or figure) becomes apparent due to the effect of persistence of vision.
The inventors of U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,966 discuss at length the fact that the image is apparent only for brief periods when the rate of rotation of the toy and the pattern clocking speed match. To overcome this shortcoming, U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,966 suggests the use of a synchronization mechanism so that the image is apparent over a wide range of rates of rotation. Seemingly synchronization is simple and obvious to one skilled in the art. Few things are further from the truth as is evidenced by the failure of the inventors of U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,966 to provide an implementable solution for this problem.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,966 is suggested a mechanism to provide an external non-rotating reference to which the display timing is synchronized. It is stated that such a mechanism can be optical, magnetic or involve other means. The only magnetic mechanism taught is the use of a static magnetic to activate a metal switch that is fixed to a rotating hubcap. Such a mechanism is susceptible to dirt, vibrations and minor misalignments. For such a metal switch to be effective it would need to be quite massive, in which case the switch would close during rotation due to centrifugal force. Worse, the reaction of such a switch will not keep up with the rotation speed. The only optical mechanism taught involves the use of a rotating optical sensor (e.g. a LED/photoresistor pair) to optically detect a non-rotating external reference point.
The solutions for gaining data associated with rotation of a spinning toy require that the spinning toy be associated with a non-rotating reference. This significantly limits the fun from a synchronized rotating toy according to the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 5,701,966. These ineffective solutions demonstrate that a method for measuring data associated with the rotation of a toy is not obvious even to one skilled in the art.
It would be highly advantageous to have a rotating toy that overcomes the shortcomings of the prior-art rotating toys.